Astronomers have lost track of nearly 900 asteroids.

"Astronomers have lost track of nearly 900 asteroids that could be on a deadly collision course with Earth"

How on earth (no pun intended! ) could they have lost track of them? I mean, to lose one asteroid may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose nearly 900 looks like carelessness. Is there nothing NASA can say that you anoraks won't believe?

"Astronomers have lost track of nearly 900 asteroids that could be on a deadly collision course with Earth"

How on earth (no pun intended! ) could they have lost track of them? I mean, to lose one asteroid may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose nearly 900 looks like carelessness. Is there nothing NASA can say that you anoraks won't believe?

So...apparently seeing something once and not seeing it again is "Losing" it in your tiny little mind. I once lost an entire Island flying over the Pacific.

Had you bothered to read and comprehend your article rather than find a headline you could use to make fun of science you do not understand, you would have probably gained slight insight into the way asteroids are found and tracked.

It's speed isn't cosmological science, it is proven kinetic physics; the question is - at that phenomenal speed, how can anyone expect it to be within passing visual range for more than a few seconds.

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The same reason you can watch jet aircraft flying high overhead even though they’re travelling at hundreds of miles an hour and that you can see stars in the same patch of sky that are many light-years apart. The further the object is away from you, the wider the distance within your field of view.

The photo quite clearly shows the asteroid in a 'now you seen it, now you don't' kind of way. So is it any wonder the 'scientists', lost track of it? By the time their radio telescopes locate it again, after it re-emerges into visibility beyond the curvature of the earth, at that speed it would be at least 3 light years away?

The photo quite clearly shows the asteroid in a 'now you seen it, now you don't' kind of way. So is it any wonder the 'scientists', lost track of it? By the time their radio telescopes locate it again, after it re-emerges into visibility beyond the curvature of the earth, at that speed it would be at least 3 light years away?

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I clearly asked you how you calculated the speed of an object in space without being able to track it. Please explain

Secondly it is only possible to track the LIGHT REFLECTED from the object. If it passes into a shadow it will effectively "disappear".

If you look up into the night sky and see a meteor flash can you track where it is going to end up from that single observation? Do you know if it is big enough to survive and hit the earth or will it burn up in the atmosphere or if it is going fast enough to "bounce off" on another trajectory into space?

In essence these objects are akin to meteor flashes because by the time the alert is given they are already out of visual range for subsequent tracking sightings. You would know this if you had actually bothered to read and understand the article you quoted.

What this highlights is that we effectively need more telescopes with automatic linking so that when the first telescope records the initial observation the other telescopes will be able to look for it in the probable predicted locations immediately.

Cosmology is a developing science. We are still learning how to do these things. Why do you fallaciously assume that everything must be working 100% perfectly all of the time when it comes to science?

"Astronomers have lost track of nearly 900 asteroids that could be on a deadly collision course with Earth"

How on earth (no pun intended! ) could they have lost track of them? I mean, to lose one asteroid may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose nearly 900 looks like carelessness. Is there nothing NASA can say that you anoraks won't believe?

Maybe you should put the UKSA on it, I mean they have done so much for the advancement of space travel and have so many discoveries and accomplishments . The UKSA has long glorious history going all the way back to 2010.

"Astronomers have lost track of nearly 900 asteroids that could be on a deadly collision course with Earth"

How on earth (no pun intended! ) could they have lost track of them? I mean, to lose one asteroid may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose nearly 900 looks like carelessness. Is there nothing NASA can say that you anoraks won't believe?

The photo quite clearly shows the asteroid in a 'now you seen it, now you don't' kind of way. So is it any wonder the 'scientists', lost track of it? By the time their radio telescopes locate it again, after it re-emerges into visibility beyond the curvature of the earth, at that speed it would be at least 3 light years away?

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Well, they are tracking 15,000 near earth objects and finding new ones at the rate of about 500 per year.

Losing track of some for some period of time doesn't really seem that ridiculous given their number, their size and the limited attention we're willing to fund.